Tuesday 12th August

After a rather short night I woke to a message from Nathan, so I got organised, switched on Skype and enjoyed a long chat with him and Mira.
Nathan is having a lovely time exploring the area and getting some much needed R&R.
At 8:24am I took a break to go rouse a couple of kids from their slumbers.
The first one greeted me with very little movement a small groans but the 2nd one immediately bounced out of bed and head to the shower.
He was dressed, fed, had the dog walked and down three lessons of Math before I was showered!!

I was deliberately taking my time.
Told them both that I was in no hurry to go anywhere and it really all depended on how well they got their chores and school work done as to what time we left for town.

So, after my Skype session I then had a long phone call with Joy.
We hadn’t caught up in so so long so it was good to chat a while.
Then after my shower I had a lovely talk with Sandra.
In the midst of all this the news came through that Robin Williams had been found dead.
He was the same age as Tim was when he died.
63 – such a tragedy.
Too young, so sad that depression and dependancy was able devour & destroy such a brilliant life.
Like so many, I have loved Robin Williams movies – laughed with him, cried with him, and as he was very close to buying property near us I have always felt slightly akin with him.
An almost neighbour.

In the meantime the kids had cleaned up the kitchen and Azzan vacuumed the house.
He was getting rather impatient with me so I sent him off to get the dogs food ready for tonight and take Bella for another walk.
In the meantime Mahalia had finally settled down to do some Maths.
She had stayed up late last night and finished her English.

We finally left the house around 3pm.
Called in briefly to sign some papers for Ross and then around the corner to see Sally and deliver her b’day pressie.
It was a few days late but thought is what counts and main thing is she loved it 🙂
Happy Birthday my special friend – love you muchly xxxx

It is a print from the Tin Man man Tony Cribb.
Love his quirky work and the word to this just resonated with me.
I have just been googling him and I found this amazing news article.
What a battle he has had and is recovering from.
I sure hope that he recovers fully to paint again.

We didn’t have much time there as we had to be in town at 5pm for Mahalia’s class.
Made it with 2 mins to spare.
Azzan and I then headed to Jay Jays to suss out some togs as he has outgrown his and Mahalia suggested that Jane might have some.
And indeed she did.
She climbed way up high on her ladder and fished some down which were from the summer sale.
He was very pleased to find some to fit, chose a couple of pairs and I was very pleased with the $10 price tags 🙂
Chrissy text me to arrange a coffee date so we zipped off to met up with her and Joel at Hangar 58.
Had an enjoyable catch up but all too soon we had to mosey off to pick up Mahalia at 6:20pm.
Azzan was so starving hungry and absolutely couldn’t possibly wait until we got home for dinner so I gave him some money and he ran over to New World.
I went inside to get Mahalia and was delighted to hear that she had done a follow up spelling test and after only 2 weeks has increased her spelling age by 8 months.
She was so happy 🙂
Now she can see that she is progressing it might be easier for her 🙂
We headed over to get Azzan.
He wasn’t waiting at the door, I was in the car parked outside scanning the big windows by the checkouts and couldn’t see him while Mahalia was circumnavigating the whole supermarket.
She couldn’t find him.
That is not a good feeling
Thankfully before we panicked and called the police etc Mahalia managed to track him down as  he walked passed her from the far check out.
Whew!
Always a worry when he comes to town with no phone.
My one fear in life is losing my kids.

Straight back home.
Tired.
Fell into bed and left the kids to find food.
Skyped with Jesika.
It was her birthday yesterday but she was still working up country at the mine.
To quote her FB status
‘I spent my day in the desert surrounded by a whole lot of red dirt and about 800 hungry men haha!!! So not the most glamorous day – but now I am home I get to relax and enjoy my birthday week.’

It was really interesting hearing about her first week in her new job working in the food and beverage side of mine life.
Busy, tiring, and cut off from normal life.
She has a week home and then will begin her FIFO – Fly In for 2 weeks work and Fly Out for 1 week home.

I was so tired that I was falling asleep so we said goodnight and I staggered out to tuck down the kids.
Crashville!!

 

 

Monday 11th August

I was up early and ready to leave the house before the kids barely had their eyes opened.
I left them to carry on with their day and get chores and school work done.
Didn’t think I needed to leave them a list this time.

Shoshannah had ‘found’ a photo of Tim that I had forgotten about and brought it to my attention this morning and seeing it brought back the memories of a happy day.
Maybe it is that he is looking directly at me with his lovely crooked smile and I can almost hear what he is thinking, whatever it was, it brought tears.
I so miss him.
I just want his arms around me right now and him telling me that everything going to be alright.

Driving into town on my own gave me time to think, sort memories, feel sad,  just have much needed time alone.

I called into the panel beaters as I am not happy with the way they attached the mudguard.
The guy was trying to tell me they couldn’t fit it back on tightly cuz of diesel spillage twisting the metal and plastic, but I just stood there and carried on pushing and poking it until he decided I could bring it in for an hour later in the week for them to have another play with.
So maybe they can make a better go of it!!
I zipped around the port and dropped the baby carseat back in and just had time to go get myself a drink before my 10am counselling session.
Am still trying to find my voice again, my therapist is encouraging me to start writing in again.
I literally froze for a week.
She knows how sanitive it is for me.
I was feeling pretty fragile when I left but had a luncheon to get to so I zipped into Countdown Stoke topic up some food to contribute and arrived at Debbie’s to find a crowd of ladies there already.
There were lots of friendly hugs and greetings.
Debbie made me a lemon verbena tea – extra strength with two leaves 😉
She gave me a guided tour of the house and then we had lunch.
It was a lovely few hours with friends and neighbours from our part of the Sounds.
Life just gets too busy and we don’t get to see each other much so it is great to have these intermittent catch up times.

I do not cope with too much socialising in big crowds for too long these days so was sorta glad to have a reason to slip away just before 3pm.
I was barely holding back the tears as Debbie hugged me goodbye.
Emotionally it was a hard day for me.
It was pouring down so I drove cautiously into the city following some large slow trucks and through school traffic and managed to park right outside Morrison St Cafe where I was meeting Katrina.
We enjoyed afternoon tea and a lovely long chat until they cleaned up and closed the doors around us!
So good to catch up Kat – must do it again soon xxx
I then drove past Roni’s office and popped in to see if she had a minute to see me.
As there were no clients in her chairs and I was next on her list I sat and talked with her for ages.
Finally left around 6pm.
It was dark and wet and cold.
Drove straight to John & Sally’s and wallowed in the warmth of their living room while we talked.
I finally got back home around 9pm.
I was totally gutted and so disheartened to find the kids had done absolutely nothing while I was gone.
No housework, no dishes, no cooking – just snacking, and the worst thing hardly any school work.
I was so incredibly frustrated and disappointed that I just went straight to bed and left them to it.
I ended up sitting in bed catching up on the past weeks blog posts and falling to sleep at some ungodly hour of the morning.

Sunday 10th August

I woke up at 6:45,  sure I could hear Lily crying through the bedroom wall.
I text Sunni to tell her and she assured me that Lily was still safely asleep in her own bed at home 🙂
So strange not to have them here  
We had a very chilled Sunday.
Didn’t do a lot for the morning.
Tried to encourage the kids to get some school work under their belts, that was a bit like pushing muck uphill but eventually they got into it.
It was a beautiful sunny day and when Azzan took a break to do some bike riding I went out and joined him.
My tail bone is feeling heaps better now so we rode around the back garden and then I got brave enough to follow Azzan up the road and back.
It is a bit of a downhill slope coming back, rather scary for an old novice like me but I got home unscathed.
Jillian, Colin & Stephen called in mid arvo for a visit on their way home.
It was really nice to sit and chat with them for a while.
Colin helped the kids pump up their bike tyres.
We had bought a tyre pump but hadn’t figured out how to use it yet!!

After they left I got on with making dinner.
I roasted up a large pan of potato, kumara, parsnip & pumpkin.
Then made a beef stir fry dish with veges and diced tomato.
It was delicious.
Also made an apple & berry crumble which we ate with ice cream or yoghurt.
I wasn’t too thrilled with the pudding as it ended up a bit dry.
Mahalia went out biking with Azzan when they took Bella for her run.
She came back a wounded soldier leaning on her brother.
She had canned off in some gravel and landed heavily on her knee, tearing a small hole in her jeans and also bruising and puncturing her knee.
She was more concerned about the hole in her jeans!!
We iced her knee to reduce the bruising.
I think she will survive to tell the tale!

Billy from downstairs came up for dinner at 6:30pm.
He’s a really nice young guy originating from the UK and now working here as a green keeper for a local golf club.
We had a very enjoyable time together, getting to know him better and talking about all our travel plans and dreams.
The kids were in a very silly giggly mood 🙂
I was really tired so once Billy left around 9pm we were not far out of bed.
The moon tonight was amazing – I took this photo just before dinner.
Later I saw they were referring to it as a super moon on the news.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday 9th August

No wonder it was cold last night.
Woke to a fresh coating of snow on the surrounding hills.
Gorgeously sunny day but air temps still crisp.

Lily came to see me in bed and had fun exploring the insides of my laptop bag – loads of cables and plugs etc to employ her curiosity.
But that all came to an abrupt end when I received a phone call from her Great Uncle Martin.
I put the speaker phone on because it was easier to hear, but hearing his very deep loud voice resonating out of my phone was too much for her.
She burst into tears and cried loudly until her Mum came to her rescue!!
Funny wee poppet 🙂
I got up and had a shower and cuz Lily was all grubby from her green smoothie and all the other breakfast foods she had been consuming she was passed in to me.
We had a lovely shower together until she decided that seeing Nonna in the altogether was just a bit much and the tears of protestation began.
Quickly passed her out to her Mum and all was then well in her world 🙂
She is such a wee darling and there are never many tears at all.
It has to be something terribly serious to dissolve her – the most serious thing in her world is lack of food.
She loves food!
She is so easy and loveable.

After she had her morning nap we packed up the car.
Loaded her cot and bags in and around 11:30am we headed into Richmond.
I stopped at Ross’s to pick up mail and then went on to Crusoes Cafe where we were meeting up with a few others for lunch.
Libby & Pete had driven over from Blenheim for the day and arrived with her Ma & Pa, Frances & John.
It was really great to meet Pete for the first time.
You’ve got yourself a keeper Libby 😉
Pete you have yourself an exciting time ahead for the rest of your years!!


Marah arrived with a sleeping Eden.
So she left her to carry on napping in the car.
She & Mahalia took turns to duck out and keep checking on her.
Marah took Lily for a walk to check and came back with two babies.
Said it was a bit of an act negotiating the two of them at once, and maybe having twins wouldn’t be such a great idea!!

Marah & Eden left soon after as they had more socialising to do.
Lily had to have lots of last cuddles with Aunty Marah, she was so cute.

Terrence & Amy rolled up just as the others were heading off for some more food and socialisation.
Never ends around here!!
I was amused to see Terence & Azzan reading books while the females were chatting over miniature females.
Loved their choice of topic – Azzan reading his new prized title of Movie Reviews and Terrence reading the Kiwi version of ‘The Wheels on the Bus Go Round & Round’  🙂

Anat found some balloons for the girls.
They are always a hit with little folk.

Aviah is just one now and is walking.
It was lovely to watch her interacting with Lily, wanting to play and share.

Lily took a great liking to Terence

When we were leaving she kept wanting more hugs with him 🙂
It was around 3:30pm when we all rolled out of the cafe and went our separate ways.

Lily was really tired, actually we were all very tired!
So I drove on into the city to drop off a dvd and give Lily time to go to sleep.
She was out like a light very quickly so when we arrived at Martin & Sylvia’s we left her in the car to sleep as long as she wanted.
Mahalia & Azzan were both happy to stay with her and rest too.
Sunniva & I went in and had a lovely time catching up with M&S and hearing about their latest travels.
Finally Lily woke so the kids brought her up to us.
She was full of beans and wriggle and entertained us all for the last part of our visit.
Finally around 5:30pm we had to leave to take them to the airport.
We had last hugs and cuddles and led Sunniva to go clean up and feed the poppet before they had to board their flight back home.

We carried on with our social day, called into the supermarket and picked up a few items before arriving at Pat & Phillipa’s for a World Vision fund raising musical lounge evening.
A good crowd turned out despite the chilly night.
A couple of guys entertained us for an hour or so with their music and stories.
We three were all rather weary.
Mahalia went and lay down for a while after Phillipa gave her some painkillers for a headache and Azzan disappeared out to the car for a while for a break from all the people.
They both eventually returned for the latter stages of the evening.
I sat and knitted in the kitchen, I could still see and hear everything but I wasn’t in the middle of the crowd and also was further from the noise of the speakers.
Got quite a bit of knitting done which was great.
Then we had a shared supper and chatted the evening away.
It was very chilly when we left so we didn’t dally outside.
Got home around 11pm to a very excited Bella.
Didn’t take long to get her settled and us all off to bed.

 

 

Friday 8th August

We had decided to have a day out in the opposite direction to town today.
Lily came into visit me in my bed for a while.
It gave Sunniva time to make the green smoothies for their breakfast.
She loves the things in my laptop bag.

The kids bathed her and then tried to get her dressed.
It was like cladding a worm.
She wriggled and squiggled so much that it took two of them to hold her still enough to get the clothes onto her.
It was very funny to watch 🙂

After Lily had her morning nap we all hopped in the car and drove west.
We had planned on having lunch at Jester House but on arrival discovered it was closed for the winter still.
So we carried on and went exploring.
We had never been out on the Kina Peninsula so took that road and drove to the end.
We parked up and went walking on the beach.
It was a gloriously sunny day but the air temperatures were chilly and their was quite a breeze so we headed along towards the eastern end.

I love this photo.
If Sunniva wasn’t holding the baby I don’t think I would be able to tell her and Mahalia apart!

Lily was enjoying the shells they found along the way.
The beach was littered with horse mussel shells, I don’t think I have seen so many like this before.
There were heaps of other shells too.
Great foraging area.

Lily hates to wear a hat or hood but as the wind was so cold we had to protect her somehow so my scarf was employed.
She didn’t mind that at all, and looked so cute in the process.

We eventually got back to the car and decided to follow the road to the other end and discovered a really cool golf course on the slope with a magnificent view.

There was also some extremely expensive homes nearby which we discovered afterwards belong to the Talley family and one on it’s own is CV’d at $5,000,000!
Oh well, I didn’t want to live there anyway!!

We then meandered off towards Motueka in search of food.
Saw a sign which advertised ‘Up The Garden Path’ cafe so we went to suss it out.
There were a lot of cars parked outside which we took as a sign of good food.
We were not disappointed.
Even though they were busy Sunniva found a table on the verandah behind the shelter of a plastic blind so we felt like we were outdoors but were protected from the weather.
The menu looked extremely inviting, it was actually hard to choose!
But finally we all made our selections and soon were diving in hungrily to the most delicious food.
Mahalia chose the Pasta of the Day – Chicken & Mushroom Carbonara, Azzan the Big Club Sandwich, I had the Moroccan Salad and the Winter Spinach Salad was Sunni’s option.
We were all delighted with our choices.

Azzan is very good at entertaining Lily and she loves to play peek-a-boo.

Azzan & I succumbed to the temptation of the dessert cabinet as they were all made on the premises and looked too good to not try.
I had the Brownie – it was cooked to absolute perfection.
I now do not need any more sugar or sweetness for the next 12 months!!
Azzan loved his berry Cheesecake.
The cafe is also an art gallery so once we had eaten we wandered around admiring the works and making some purchases of some smaller items.
On the way out Lily & Azzan found this mirror in the garden which entertained them both for a while 🙂

We decided to go have a look at the Mapua shops as the day was still young.
Our first port of call turned out to be the perfect shop for us all.
The Cool Store Gallery.
As soon as we walked in the door we were transfixed.
It contained lots of local artworks which were just so lovely to behold that we took a long time in there admiring and choosing and dreaming over.
Once we had finally decided on what we wanted we made out purchases, popped them int he car and then walked around the block visiting each shop.
They all had appeal, but none as great as the first one.
It was getting colder and later so we bundled back into the car and headed home.
After our lunch we weren’t terribly hungry so dinner was easy.

 

Thursday 7th August

We knew Thursday was going to be a long and busy day so we were all mentally prepared for it.
Azzan & Lily had breakfast together.
Green smoothies and peanut butter toast.
It was rather fun sharing 🙂

After Lily had her morning nap we headed straight into town.
I dropped Mahalia off at Nelson Beauty Therapy for her day of work experience.
Then we found a park near DeVille where we were meeting up with Phoebe, Seb & Sapphire.
It was really busy but on seeing us all crowding round a two chair table another couple opted to swap with us so we had plenty of room for the 6 of us with the two babies.
We had a lovely time there.
Seb & Phoebe hadn’t caught up with Sunni & Lily since New Year so it was cool for the little cousins to get together.
Sapphire is now 7.5 months old.

And Lily is 10 months.

They are as alike as chalk and cheese 🙂

Lily’s natural mohawk is a continual show stopper and Sapphie’s soft peach fuzz just invites head massaging 🙂

Uncle Zani is a continual source of amusement to his nieces.


I had to get to an appointment at 1pm so I left Sunniva & Azzan to walk to his English lesson at 1:30pm.
Found out afterwards that they wanted him there at 1pm, bummer really cuz it would’ve made it easier for me if I’d known that beforehand
I was emotionally drained after my counselling session, am processing so much right now.
I picked up Sunni & Lily who were waiting at a nearby cafe and then Azzan was finished too so we all headed out to visit with Phillipa for a wee while.
Lily slept & Sunni rested in the car for a while and then they joined us for a cuppa.
It was nice to just sit and chill.
We zipped back into the city to pick up Mahalia and dropped her off at her English lesson.
The girls had asked if we could pull our dinner reservations forward to accommodate the little girls so I organised for Mahalia to take a taxi over to us after her lesson.|

We met up at Smugglers Restaurant for the evening.
While we waited for the others to arrive Lily talked to her Daddy on the phone 🙂

Anson, Marah & Eden, Seb, Phoebe & Sapphire came so we could have the three wee cousins together.
David & Sasha brought Shoshannah out with them and John & Sally popped in to join us so we made a merry crowd around the large centre table with the open fire place in it’s midst.

There was lots of pass the babies around so the parents all had time to eat and share and compare weights and heights and shapes and sizes!

Azzan was adamant he wanted to try the cheese board for dessert so he and David shared one.
We had a delightful evening.
The little folk lasted the distance really well.

Wednesday 6th August

We got the house all clean and tidy and ready for our visitors.
Azzan has moved into Mahalia’s room and we have the bed changed and cot ready.
I had to have Mahalia in town by 11am for her orthodontist appointment.

We were nearly there when I received a phone call which made me change plans just as I was arriving there.
I dropped Mahalia off and headed into the city to meet up with Roni.
Had a few things we need to discuss but while there I got a text from Mahalia at 11:30 asking what time her appointment was as she hadn’t yet been called in.
I raced off up there and found she was finally in the chair, he was running behind schedule which in turn put my time table out so we had to do some quick rethinking.
I left Mahalia to walk to the library and I took Azzan with me.
He wanted to stay in car while I had my massage.
So I left him with his iPad and spent an hour having the painful knot in my shoulder worked on.
We picked up Mahalia and then went to get some lunch.
We had plenty of time so cruised on out to the airport and waited for Sunni & Lily’s plane to arrive.
It was scheduled to come in at 2:25 but was 15 minutes late.
While we waited eagerly for them to disembark I saw Corene who happened to be on the same plane.
It was such a lovely surprise to see her then as I was expecting to catch up with her later in the week, and as it turned out neither of us were able to find the time in our busy few days to do that.
Sunni had only carry on so we left immediately.
We stopped off in Richmond to get some fresh fruit & veges and a few groceries and then headed straight back to the house.
Seb & Phoebe brought Shoshannah out and met us there.
We put out some crackers & cheese etc for afternoon tea and let the little girls play.
Their young aunties enjoyed spending time with them both 🙂

Peek-a-boo through the window with Aunty Hali was fun 🙂

After everyone had left we got some dinner on.
I made a large vegetable salad with roast pumpkin, spinach etc – so delicious.
Lily-licious loves food so was very happy when Aunty Hali fed her some fruit mush while her mummy and Nonna cooked dinner.

We were tired so were all in bed quite early.

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